S03.E20: Emancipation

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

As Daisy's prophecy ticks closer toward the loss of one of their own, Hive continuing to grow in strength—and with S.H.I.E.L.D. feeling pressure to reveal their involvement with the Inhumans in the wake of the civil war within the Avengers—the stakes are higher than ever, and the team is tested in ways they could never anticipate.

Promo:

Edited May 4, 2016 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Bubbles]

I guess that synopsis answers my question about whether or not it's safe to watch this episode if I haven't seen Captain America: Civil War yet. 

[mac123x]

"Lash's purpose wasn't to kill Hive... It was to save Daisy" oh FUCK OFF show.  Special Snowflake status: Confirmed.

 

During Lincoln's escape, I kept going back and forth on whether it was a set up.  I wanted to think it was, but then I remember how many times so far Coulson has gotten caught flat-footed so I assumed it was a genuine escape.  Glad to be wrong for once.

[kitlee625]

2 minutes ago, mac123x said:

"Lash's purpose wasn't to kill Hive... It was to save Daisy" oh FUCK OFF show.  Special Snowflake status: Confirmed.

 

During Lincoln's escape, I kept going back and forth on whether it was a set up.  I wanted to think it was, but then I remember how many times so far Coulson has gotten caught flat-footed so I assumed it was a genuine escape.  Glad to be wrong for once.

The Lincoln escape really had me excited about the show. And then Princess Sparkle Snowflake was revealed to have another character who's entire purpose on Earth was to rescue her ... yet again. This show is just ridiculously, stupidly repeating itself.

 

On a more meta level, can we please have a female hero who can actually save herself?

Edited May 11, 2016 by kitlee625

[ottoDbusdriver]

So, was Lash's death the "big death" Daisy envisioned ?  If it was, it was damn disappointing.  Whoops !! The preview for the finale says it's someone else, but they really are telegraphing it will be Mack now that he has the cross necklace but that will just be a big old fakeout.

Lash love Daisy.  Lash save Daisy.  Lash killed by being caught off guard while saving Daisy.  What a idiot !
Seriously, Lash's purpose was to save Daisy.  I think I'm going to puke.

How did Lash even know that he had "Hive" nano-particle removal technology ?  How would he have been able to test that ?

And Hive is going to build a primitive human army.  Whatever.  

Let's see -- Daisy's vision has a Quinjet floating in space, and Hive is going to launch a missile, which means the Quinjet will probably tow the missile into orbit where it can explode safely.  Blah, blah, blah. It's all just so underwhelming.

[Lantern7]

Alpha Primitives! I only saw one in the Jenkins/Lee Marvel Knights miniseries, but it adds a layer of creepy to Hive's plan.

Nice that Lincoln wasn't a total butthead this time, even if Mack got banged up yet again. And interesting how Lash was the anti-Hive. Too bad he wound up getting killed.

In Secret Warriors, was there a guy with a flaming chain? Nice effect . . . kinda like Ghost Rider, only without the absolute suck.

[AimingforYoko]

It's not Mac. Nice setup, though.

I was a little disappointed in the Lash-Hive faceoff. I knew it was too early for Hive to go, but I wanted a better battle than one sucking chest wound.

[ottoDbusdriver]

2 minutes ago, AimingforYoko said:

It's not Mac. Nice setup, though.

I was a little disappointed in the Lash-Hive faceoff. I knew it was too early for Hive to go, but I wanted a better battle than one sucking chest wound.

Why didn't Lash finish off Hive then and there -- and save the world ?  But nope, gotta rescue Daisy.

And Daisy's makeup was pretty bad and inconsistent throughout the episode.

Edited May 11, 2016 by ottoDbusdriver

[kitlee625]

4 minutes ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Why didn't Lash finish off Hive then and there -- and save the world ?  But nope, gotta rescue Daisy.

And Daisy's makeup was pretty bad and inconsistent throughout the episode.

That's the logic of the show. Save the world? Nope! Not as important as saving Princess Snowflake.

Edited May 11, 2016 by kitlee625

[tennisgurl]

I am normally a Daisy apologist, but Special Snowflake Daisy was in full force with this one. Giving up what could be a huge asset in the fight against Hive just to save one person? Granted, it had strategic positives to get Daisy back, but come on. 

So glad Lincoln was only pretending to give into Daisy obsession. I like him way more away from Daisy, especially with May. The two of them work really well together. 

[xqueenfrostine]

I liked this year's MCU-verse tie-in better than the one last year.  The helicarrier and Hydra base mission last season felt shoehorned in.  Talbot's visit to inventory the Inhumans to comply with the Sokovia Accords was a more natural way to acknowledge the important world events that are happening in the MCU right now.

Soooo relieved that Lincoln's "escape" from SHIELD ended up being a plan to trick Daisy into revealing their location and to send in Lash in his place.  I spent the entire episode cursing him out in my head for being lame and stupid enough to trust Daisy.  I'm happy to be wrong, though less enthused that Lash's "life purpose" was to save Daisy.  I don't mind him having the power to remove Hive's parasites from inhumans.  In another context, that'd be a cool power for him to have but sacrificing himself for Daisy is an end that Dr. Gardner didn't deserve.  I was really excited when Lash was revealed to have gone in Lincoln's place on the quinjet, but the payoff wasn't worth it in the end.

 

How did Lash even know that he had "Hive" nano-particle removal technology ?  How would he have been able to test that ?

Lash's powers have always hinged on his gut intuition haven't they?  He's talked before about only killing Inhumans he deemed bad, and it doesn't seem like he was making those judgment calls based on observation.  I don't think most of what Lash did during his brief Inhuman life came as a result of him discovering his powers through trial and error.  Unlike most new inhumans we've seen,Andrew came out of teregenesis as a completely different being rather than just being himself with new powers.  We never got to explore exactly who Lash was and what all he was capable of before he died.

Edited May 11, 2016 by xqueenfrostine

[TVSpectator]

The line about Lash's purpose was to save Daisy was too much. Really, show just fucking stop it with the whole, Daisy is so special,  and just fucking move on already. 

Although, I was kind of glad that Lincoln wasn't a total butthead when it came to saving Daisy but please, show, just stop acting like Daisy is so freaking special (and I am only happy that SLJ hasn't come on this show to announce how much he thinks Daisy is such a special snowflake). 

Talbot, Mack, and May are the only characters that I actually care about, right now (although, I do like John Hannah's character but I am not getting attached to him, because of this show's history with introducing new characters...). Pretty much everyone is just either not interesting right now (Fitz and Simmons), so hypocritical that the only thing that is saving the character is the actor who is playing, said character (Coulson), or is just, 90% of the time boring like toast (Lincoln). Yeah, I like Talbot, and I do think that he is way smarter than Coulson but is just not showing it just so he can stay under Coulson's radar. And I have to say that May did make the right call to send Lash to kill Hive but too bad his true purpose was to save Daisy. 

As with making Hellfire, an Inhuman, that is pretty much what is making me made. Yeah, they probably can't use the actual supernatural stuff (just yet) and probably would want to stick with less comic book stuff (although, I do think that Agent Carter handled the Darkforce stuff why better and even set up the idea that there is a presence behind the Darkforce- Dormammu - which was, of course, left unnamed on the show) and I really don't consider myself to be one of those comic book purists, but it's just making me mad that this version of Hellfire is an Inhuman for some reason.

Also, the Watchdogs that were transformed was taken from the comics (well at least the idea came from the comics) and that was probably the only part of Hive's plan that I found to be creepy. Again, I will state this- Hive/SquidWard isn't scary at all. He does not seem like a Lucifer type character nor do I believe that he was the MCU's inspiration for the Devil (and again, we all know it's Dormammu. Once this show just starts loving the broader source material, IMO, and drop the "Special Snowflake" routine, it will be much better). 

Edited May 11, 2016 by TVSpectator

[redfish]

Considering the Accords. I think NOW is the time to call in Ironman/Captain America. No? Then what was the Accords for? I don't think they can negotiate their way to stop HiveWard.

I know it's suppose to be tragic with Lash but that plot twitst lacked the emotional punch since he was out of the picture for a few episodes and they threw him in as a deux ex machina moment, but I suppose that was what his Inhuman power was for: to kill a specific Inhuman. But I knew he was marked for death since they brought his character in for that episode they weren't going to waste his appearance just to bug Talbot.

Geez, this show seems to love making Talbot so out of the loop incompetant that it makes me wonder why they gave him a military command.

[catrice2]

Gosh. I was looking forward  to Daisy dying..you know the show doing something bold.  Now it will likely be Mack.  I am so bored with Daisy...and they sacrificed Lash for this?  I agree, he would have just killed Hive.  At least they could have had Lash transform so that May could see her husband's face once more.  

[kitlee625]

2 minutes ago, catrice2 said:

Gosh. I was looking forward  to Daisy dying..you know the show doing something bold.  Now it will likely be Mack.  I am so bored with Daisy...and they sacrificed Lash for this?  I agree, he would have just killed Hive.  At least they could have had Lash transform so that May could see her husband's face once more.  

For one glorious moment I thought that Lash would kill Hive, but his parasites would have lived on in his minions, and Daisy and Hellfire would take up the mantle. Alas.

[xqueenfrostine]

4 minutes ago, redfish said:

Considering the Accords. I think NOW is the time to call in Ironman/Captain America. No? Then what was the Accords for? I don't think they can negotiate their way to stop HiveWard.

This is a hard question to answer without getting into movie spoiler territory, but I don't think it'd be possible for them to call in the Avengers right now.

[mac123x]

35 minutes ago, kitlee625 said:

That's the logic of the show. Save the world? Nope! Not as important as saving Princess Snowflake.

Save the cheerleader, save the world.

[TVSpectator]

10 minutes ago, redfish said:

Considering the Accords. I think NOW is the time to call in Ironman/Captain America. No? Then what was the Accords for? I don't think they can negotiate their way to stop HiveWard.

I know it's suppose to be tragic with Lash but that plot twitst lacked the emotional punch since he was out of the picture for a few episodes and they threw him in as a deux ex machina moment, but I suppose that was what his Inhuman power was for: to kill a specific Inhuman. But I knew he was marked for death since they brought his character in for that episode they weren't going to waste his appearance just to bug Talbot.

Geez, this show seems to love making Talbot so out of the loop incompetant that it makes me wonder why they gave him a military command.

 

 

 

I do think that the show either doesn't get that the Air Force, is considered to be the most well educated branch of the US military (and yes, I will admit, I am biased on this subject- I had family- who were retired Air Force officers and one of them held a PhD, in Physics!) and/or totally thinks that everyone in the military are stupid jocks. I wonder if they do this so Coulson's team looks smarter by comparison?

Edited May 11, 2016 by TVSpectator

[TVSpectator]

6 minutes ago, kitlee625 said:

For one glorious moment I thought that Lash would kill Hive, but his parasites would have lived on in his minions, and Daisy and Hellfire would take up the mantle. Alas.

Man, that would've been a good show. Although, I do think that everyone here predicted that Daisy's mind control/drug addiction would come to an end by the end of this season, but I was really enjoying seeing a side of Daisy that was awesome to see. And I do wish that it would've just carried over to next season (because if they are going to kill off Hive/SquidWard and also have no Hydra, then who the hell is going to be the main villain? The Watchdogs can't even hold a paper bag next to Talbot, let alone SHIELD).

[redfish]

Quote

I do think that the show either doesn't get that the Air Force, is considered to be the most well educated branch of the US military (and yes, I will admit, I am biased on this subject- I had family- who were retired Air Force officers and one of them held a PhD, in Physics!) and/or totally thinks that everyone in the military are stupid jocks. I wonder if they do this so Coulson's team looks smarter by comparison?

Probably, because it would kill the showrunners to have anyone that isn't SHIELD as smart or competent at their job. Wide eyed Talbot is really getting predictable.

[TVSpectator]

6 minutes ago, redfish said:

Probably, because it would kill the showrunners to have anyone that isn't SHIELD as smart or competent at their job. Wide eyed Talbot is really getting predictable.

 

I just hope that my theory on Talbot is correct and if the showrunners won't admit to it, then I will just keep it in my headcanon. 

Edited May 11, 2016 by TVSpectator

[Senna]

In this episode: Skye and Ward "made babies"; Chekhov's cross appeared; everybody got tricked.

I agree that the resolution for Lash lacked punch.  Would've been nice if he could've at least freed a few more inhumans from the Hive and not just "special snowflake" Daisy.

If Talbot doesn't have the power as head of the ATCU to order a military attack on a threat -- as they implied this episode, that he couldn't tell the truth about it (are inhumans a secret?  I didn't think so), and there'd be too much red tape, anyway -- then what exactly is the point of the ATCU?  At least Ros was fun to watch.  I still miss Ros :(

As a side note, I also thought it was stupid to say Hive was the "devil"/source of devil mythology.  I don't see any connection there, since Hive's been on another planet for ages, though of course we haven't seen yet how the Hydra cult started around him.  I am a bit interested in that piece of the equation -- how exactly did Hive gain that loyalty of people trying to bring him back for hundreds of years in the first place?  I guess we'll see next episode.

Mack having the cross this episode almost relieved me slightly because usually shows don't have the guts to prolong that kind of dramatic irony, so assuredly he will be handing it off to someone else like a deadly hot potato.  Though he could still get caught with it at the end ... I hope not.

[DeLurker]

23 minutes ago, catrice2 said:

Gosh. I was looking forward  to Daisy dying..you know the show doing something bold.  Now it will likely be Mack.  I am so bored with Daisy...and they sacrificed Lash for this?  I agree, he would have just killed Hive.  At least they could have had Lash transform so that May could see her husband's face once more.  

Better not be Mack. I'm fearful it will be YoYo now so they can show Mack's teary eyes and sadness.  That level of emoting is like catnip to the writers.  If they kill Elena on him they better give him a shotgun-axe.

Was hoping Lash would return to human form too.

[benteen]

Yeah, the Lash's job is to save Daisy thing is pretty bad.  Too bad though because I liked this episode.

Though yeah, it's really hard to buy not sending in the Avengers (or the members who signed the Accords) in to deal with a threat to the entire planet.  When Talbot was talking about who they needed to call him, I thought he would say the Avengers and not the Army.

In any case, you don't give up your big gun to save the special snowflake.

[kitlee625]

Did anyone else get some serious deja vu while watching this episode? To me it was very reminiscent of the end of season 2b. Daisy is swayed away from SHIELD and towards Jiaying/Hive due to a special connection they share. A powerful but weird-looking Inhuman (Raina/Lash) turns her away from them and back towards SHIELD by sacrificing their lives. In both cases we get a cheesy line about how it's Raina/Lash's destiny to die rescuing her.

Edited May 11, 2016 by kitlee625
clarity

[DeLurker]

The headline in the paper Coulson had was the obit for Agent Carter. Nice picture too.  Guess with the cancellation that was a subtle goodbye.

[missbonnie]

I myself loved the entire episode but then I have always been a fan of Skye/Daisy. I initially thought that Lash's main purpose was to kill Hive and I was surprised that he was supposed to remove the sway from Daisy. To me, that makes sense given what we knew about Andrew pre Lash. I'm good to go. 

[Lantern7]

Heh . . . "Rasta Hulk." I think "Grey Blanka" would have worked as well.

[xqueenfrostine]

58 minutes ago, benteen said:

Though yeah, it's really hard to buy not sending in the Avengers (or the members who signed the Accords) in to deal with a threat to the entire planet.  When Talbot was talking about who they needed to call him, I thought he would say the Avengers and not the Army.

Civil War spoilers:

Spoiler

Is there even anyone left in the Avengers to be called up for this other than Vision?  Captain America, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and Ant-Man didn't just refuse to sign the accords, they're now all in hiding after Cap broke them out of prison.  Black Widow may also be a fugitive after helping Cap and Bucky escape.  War Machine is paralyzed.   Black Panther doesn't do contract work for the US military.  And Tony seemed at least semi-retired from Avenging.  I mean, I'm sure he'd have been willing come back to stop the Inhuman Apocalypse, but I'm not sure how effective Tony and his suit would be up against a group of inhumans.  

58 minutes ago, kitlee625 said:

Did anyone else get some serious deja vu while watching this episode? To me it was very reminiscent of the end of season 2b. Daisy is swayed away from SHIELD and towards Jiaying/Hive due to a special connection they share. A powerful but weird-looking Inhuman (Raina/Lash) turns her away from them and back towards SHIELD by sacrificing their lives. In both cases we get a cheesy line about how it's Raina/Lash's destiny to die rescuing her.

I did not, though now that you mention it I can't believe I missed the parallels.  It's almost a complete recycling of Daisy's previous plotline, complete with Daisy's angsting about finally finding her "real" family at the expense of the "family" (SHIELD) that had taken her in.

Edited May 11, 2016 by xqueenfrostine

[SocaShoe]

On tonight's very special episode, the Drath Daisy saga ends as our plucky heroine is saved by a redeemed Lash (or is it Andrew) who found his true purpose - saving Daisy so that she can again assume the mantle of Princess Special Snowflake. I was surprised the last scene wasn't focused on Coulson making hot cocoa for his widdle snookums.Oh wait the finale is coming ....we still have time for cocoa!!!

I saw a review earlier thst said "this episode is the kind of episode that makes you wish SHIELD had shorter seasons." If they are cancelling Agent Carter, the they should fire SHIELD's writing staff, hand the show to Fazeekas and Butters and pray that the audience will still be there. Finally, killing Mack instrad of trying to push his development is stupid..but it seems like it is gonna happen. Grrrrr this feels like the first half of season one.

[Enigma X]

If they kill Mack abc will get hate mail every day from me.

[Texasmom1970]

16 minutes ago, Enigma X said:

If they kill Mack abc will get hate mail every day from me.

Add me to that list I love Mack!

Oh Peggy, I love Agent Carter just seeing the photo made me miss that show.

Glad Lincoln finally did something that did not make me all stabby!

Poor May I too wish she could have seen his human face not Lash one last time.

[SocaShoe]

Post mortem interview from show

 

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/11/agents-shield-daisy-hive-sway-spoilers

 

It does not look good for Mack or May.

[VCRTracking]

RIP Lash/Dr. Garner

Thank god the escape was a ruse.

"Rastahulk" Love Talbot.

Nice that they acknowledged Peggy Carter's death in Civil War.

I was like "Oh my god Alpha Primitives!"

[ElectricBoogaloo]

My main takeaway from this episode was, "Peggy Carter is dead? Nooooooooo!" I mean, I know the article said she was 95 but still!

I know that Hive is the bad guy in all of this, but I had to laugh when he specifically targeted the fanatical inhuman haters to turn into inhumans.

As soon as Lash turned to help Daisy, I was yelling, "Don't turn your back on Hive!" I expected Lash to get decapitated, electrocuted, shot, or otherwise killed while he was kneeling down next to her.

I am fine with people believing that they have a purpose, but to project that kind of fatalistic crap onto someone else? I can't believe that Andrew's sole purpose in life was to save Daisy. Give me a fucking break!

[mrspidey]

8 hours ago, mac123x said:

"Lash's purpose wasn't to kill Hive... It was to save Daisy" oh FUCK OFF show.  Special Snowflake status: Confirmed.

Uhm, you forgot Gemma's quote right after it. "That wasn't Lash."

And I'm strongly inclined to agree with her. When Lash saw Daisy, whatever was left of Andrew took over. Lash wouldn't let himself get killed that easily. 

So, no special snowflake. Just someome saving a friend. 

Edited May 11, 2016 by mrspidey

[kitlee625]

On another note, maybe it's just because I skipped a few episodes, but what's the difference between registering/Indexing Inhumans and what SHIELD does? My understanding was that SHIELD finds new Inhumans, tracks them down, takes them to a secret facility for observation/training and recruitment into Secret Warriors, and then gives them a tracker so they can be monitored and activated. Aside from creating their own team, is this really that different than what Talbot was proposing?

[OakGoblinFly]

Lincoln: Lash's purpose was to save Daisy.

Me: I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

 

Speaking of Daisy, make-up department if you want to make someone look extremely pale, you need to do more than powder the face white and take off the false eyelashes; the effect is ruined when the neck, chest, arms, and hands are a healthy glow.  It was so distracting, like a floating white face of Daisy (like I need THAT image stuck in my brain).

As far as who "dies" - I don't care as long as it isn't Simmons, Fitz, or Mack.

[OakGoblinFly]

11 minutes ago, kitlee625 said:

On another note, maybe it's just because I skipped a few episodes, but what's the difference between registering/Indexing Inhumans and what SHIELD does? My understanding was that SHIELD finds new Inhumans, tracks them down, takes them to a secret facility for observation/training and recruitment into Secret Warriors, and then gives them a tracker so they can be monitored and activated. Aside from creating their own team, is this really that different than what Talbot was proposing?

Choice - I thought SHIELD offered a choice where Talbot didn't.

[shrewd.buddha]

They could at least have given Lash/Andrew an epic final battle with Hive before dying. Getting 'stabbed' from behind was a weak exit.  
...and just before that Lash was standing over a laid-out Hive/Ward. Why couldn't you just finish one thing before getting distracted by the Snowflake!?! (Oh, the plot made you do it?  ... never mind). 

And I agree with others who have said there is no reason that Talbot has to be made  stupid and rash just to make Coulson appear smart and rational. 

[Raja]

12 minutes ago, kitlee625 said:

On another note, maybe it's just because I skipped a few episodes, but what's the difference between registering/Indexing Inhumans and what SHIELD does? My understanding was that SHIELD finds new Inhumans, tracks them down, takes them to a secret facility for observation/training and recruitment into Secret Warriors, and then gives them a tracker so they can be monitored and activated. Aside from creating their own team, is this really that different than what Talbot was proposing?

The difference seems to be that registering tells the government indexing was SHIELD acting as its own government

[kitlee625]

16 minutes ago, OakGoblinFly said:

Choice - I thought SHIELD offered a choice where Talbot didn't.

True, but say there's an Inhuman who didn't want to join the Secret Warriors? Would SHIELD really just ignore them? Because at the beginning of 3a it seemed like there were quite a few Inhumans - Alicia, Lincoln, Joey at first - who wanted to run from SHIELD or were running from SHIELD, and SHIELD kept keeping track of them and trying to recruit them.

Edited May 11, 2016 by kitlee625

[Raja]

45 minutes ago, kitlee625 said:

True, but say there's an Inhuman who didn't want to join the Secret Warriors? Would SHIELD really just ignore them? Because at the beginning of 3a it seemed like there were quite a few Inhumans - Alicia, Lincoln, Joey at first - who wanted to run from SHIELD or were running from SHIELD, and SHIELD kept keeping track of them and trying to recruit them.

They used Chief Johnson's carrot and stick technique. In the first season pyro guy who had an indexed power and left to live before being given the extremis super solder formula by Raina

[Enigma X]

2 hours ago, mrspidey said:

Uhm, you forgot Gemma's quote right after it. "That wasn't Lash."

And I'm strongly inclined to agree with her. When Lash saw Daisy, whatever was left of Andrew took over. Lash wouldn't let himself get killed that easily. 

So, no special snowflake. Just someome saving a friend. 

I actually think that would really drive home the fact that she is a special snowflake. She made Lash human again. gag...

[mac123x]

2 hours ago, mrspidey said:

Uhm, you forgot Gemma's quote right after it. "That wasn't Lash."

And I'm strongly inclined to agree with her. When Lash saw Daisy, whatever was left of Andrew took over. Lash wouldn't let himself get killed that easily. 

So, no special snowflake. Just someome saving a friend. 

In a way that actually makes it worse.  If he saved Daisy because of Andrew's feelings for her instead of it being Lash's motive, then I'm left to conclude that Lash's actual reason for being was to kill Hive.  Andrew's emotions got in the way of Lash's plan, so they lost the only weapon we've seen that works against Hive just to save Daisy.  "Save the cheerleader, save the world" becomes "save the cheerleader, screw the world".

38 minutes ago, kitlee625 said:

True, but say there's an Inhuman who didn't want to join the Secret Warriors? Would SHIELD really just ignore them? Because at the beginning of 3a it seemed like there were quite a few Inhumans - Alicia, Lincoln, Joey at first - who wanted to run from SHIELD or were running from SHIELD, and SHIELD kept keeping track of them and trying to recruit them.

The list being maintained by the UN won't stay secret for very long.  It's a huge bureaucracy, the names are bound to leak.  Also, the public knows the UN's list exists, so hackers like that group Daisy started out with will be actively trying to find it.  SHIELD is a smaller organization operating in the shadows (at least it is now), so they're less vulnerable.

[Primetimer]

If there are enough double agents and double-crosses, eventually something has to break SHIELD's way.

View the full article

[Lady Calypso]

It was definitely Andrew who saved Daisy, in my opinion. The way he was caring for her and stroking her cheek before he got killed made it seem like he wasn't Lash in that moment, but a human being. Therefore, I do think Lash's purpose was to kill Hive, while Andrew's purpose was to save Daisy. It seems like Lash would have easily killed Hive, judging by the gaping hole in his chest that didn't disappear right away, and Hive was incapacitated for most of that scene. 

But now, without Lash, how can they defeat Hive? That's going to be the question going into the finale. 

I'm also worried about Mack and May a little bit. It better not be either of them. Both are good, useful characters. I care who it is and honestly, the only two I'd be fine with are Coulson (fat chance of that happening without a twist) and Lincoln (I've grown to like the guy, but I really would be fine with his death). I'm really worried it might be May because she now lost Andrew/Lash and I don't know where else they want her story to go. And Mack? Well, he's the newest main character besides Lincoln, so they might assume he's expendable. I do think Fitz/Simmons may be safe because they've gone through a LOT since the first season, and they usually get the major event arcs in the finale. I doubt they'll kill Daisy but maybe it will be her. But I'm actually a Daisy fan and don't consider her a Special Snowflake, so.... 

I really like Talbott. I enjoy that he brings an alternative perspective on what SHIELD is doing. It's nice. 

I knew Lincoln was faking with Daisy, but I wasn't sure how many people were in on the plan. I knew it had to be Coulson. But the twist with sending Lash was interesting. 

[maraleia]

If they kill off Mack next week then this show will keep proving the point of this article https://thenerdsofcolor.org/2015/03/31/whats-the-deal-with-the-poc-characters-on-agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d/ when in comes to POC characters which is why I worry about any non-white characters other than May and Daisy at this point.

[Bishop]

I was worried that Lincoln was really trying to escape to get to Daisy.  I feel like the last few episodes have shown the team to be ridiculously hostile to Lincoln.  It's not like the guy betrayed them or was trying to hurt them.  When he took the serum, people were acting like he did something horrific, when in reality, it was only a risk to himself.  Would SImmons or Fitz or Hunter or anyone else done less for someone they cared about?  It just seemed off how everyone was treating him like the enemy.  So I was happy to see that 1) Coulson and May were working with Lincoln on Plan Daisy Deception; and 2) Lincoln was smart enough to know that Daisy was lying to him and luring him into a trap.  I like the relationship between Lincoln and May the most, I think, as she is just brutally honest and he can use someone like her in his life.  I also like that Coulson trusted him (finally) with a plan.

As for Daisy Special Snowflake, I kind of agree with most on that point.  I mean, really?  Lash, the Awesome, with all his strength was ONLY there to save Daisy?  Really?  Heck, Hive Ward was afraid of him, and Lash actually inflicted damage and yet, Lash was there to save Daisy?  I like Daisy, but I feel like other characters (like Lincoln, Lash, Coulson) get sacrificed in order to reinforce her "special" status.  Lincoln away from Daisy is fun and interesting.  Coulson constantly worrying and lamenting about Daisy?  Also boring.  

Overall, I thought this was a good episode.  I also like Hive Ward, and I see him as a completely different character from Ward.  I also noticed that he was wiling to sacrifice Daisy to get more blood for his primitive inhumans.  So his goal is all about him.

[Chaos Theory]

The only thing the episode did was make me not want to watch the movie.  Then again I have been pretty blah on the movies as of late.  No reason really and I am not looking forward to the us vs them that is going to more then likely happen for a long time.    

 

I did kinda like the episode though.  Kinda.